QOTD

deprecate
1. To express disapproval of; deplore.
2. To belittle; depreciate.
3. Computer Science To mark (a component of a software standard) as obsolete to warn against its use in the future so that it may be phased out.
- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deprecated

Howdy neighbor,

Well, my blog is moving. Soon...

• I'll no longer be at www.williamt.com/blog
• I should be (cough) moved to williamt777.blogspot.com

Here's Google's explanation: Deprecating FTP
And this is supposed to be fairly transparent and auto-magic.
We shall see.

"Deprecate" is a fave word among nerds.
We use it when we're getting rid of the "old way" of doing something in favor of a new, improved way. There are typically two reasons for this: 1) the old way is getting creaky and obsolete in view of new technology, or 2) the old way always kind of sucked in the first place. For example, Intel decided to never deprecated their old X86 architecture, choosing instead to contort around, over and through the old X86 technology. Apple has generally decided to ditch old architectures in favor of new in both hardware and software.

It's always a tough nerd decision. Change is uncomfortable. Being deprecated makes users cranky. He he.

Well, Google (the owner of blogger) is deprecating the use of File Transfer Protocol (FTP) in blogs. Don't laugh, but FTP is almost as old as me! It makes Google cranky to have to support it. I originally chose to use FTP for two reasons: 1) I liked my old williamt.com URL, and 2) I wanted my blog files to exist on my ISP server rather than over at Google.

So, I'm a user being deprecated. I'm not cranky as much as wary.
I hope this works.
Google's "Migration Tool" is supposed to copy my (2 1/2 year old, 400+ post) blog over to their servers and my new URL. It's also supposed to (gulp) put forwarding tags in the HTML of these old files pointing your browser to the new location. (gulp gulp)

I'll probably try my migration later today.

My last bikini shot... pre-deprecation... google "ftp bikini" leads you to Bridget Bardot.

So, it's not all bad. He he.
And I heart blogger. So there.
peace... yow, bill

Labels: qotd, technology

Nice.

1. Apple's iPad
Apple spam on their new gadget:
Man, them Apple boys are smart.
Like I'm going to run out to the Apple store and stand around to look at their crappy new toy.
I'm not going because the place will be overrun with other people going to look at Apple's crappy new widget.

2. Cisco's Valet
Cisco has a new gadget too. It's supposed to be a kinder, gentler, easier to setup/use wireless router:

It's called Valet, www.thevalet.com.
It works for iMac, so I might try that one out.
Now, all we need is a kinder, gentler home entertainment setup dealie. Man, that would scoop up the dollars.

3. Obama's Crackberry
Our ever-so-serious President has religious gadget:

QOTD

"I get a daily devotional on my BlackBerry which is a, is a wonderful thing."
- President Obama on not attending church services

Religion aside, that's a fave metaphor for President Obama, period.

4. Bill's Fantasy Baseball Team
I have Brandon Webb on my fantasy baseball team... a mid-late round flier.

QOTD2

"Webb (shoulder) threw seven pitches from the front of the mound on Sunday morning, the Arizona Republic reports."
- Brandon Webb news update

You follow that with a quote from Webb's AZ manager, AJ Hinch: "He's not game ready or anything like that."
Um. Duh.
he he... yow, bill

Labels: fun, myphoto, politics, qotd, sports, technology

Pretty good story in the WSJ this morning...


QOTD

"For 20 minutes we read or sent emails and spoke nary a word to each other. "
- Guy standing outside the health club... the impact of technology, WSJ source

It's a question I'm confronted with more and more... how much technology will you incorporate into your life?

• This blog... YES! This is fun.
• Other blogs... Iffy. I have a long blog roll in my Reader of mostly investing blogs... the content seems more and more like shit every day. Here's a classic example of a guy (Slope of Hope) calling everyone who made money in 2009 (presumably, he didn't) "dumb": www.slopeofhope.com/2009/12/dumb-luck.html
• Twitter... NO. Yawn.
• Smart cellphones... Iffy. I won't pay for a cellphone. Or rather, I haven't had to pay for a cellphone yet. My current version has a camera and limited Internet browsing which I almost never use. I also don't carry my stupid phone everywhere I go.
  
• Internet dating... YES! How else are you going to meet people, married friends? Married people are the enemy. Also, www.meetup.com is a great site!
• Facebook... Iffy. Facebook is love/hate. Love the fun, when it is... dislike the negativity that is so pervasive.
  
• Ipod... Iffy. I don't like the ear buds. I think eventually I'll load up one of these suckers for my car, but I'm not pining to do so. I heart my CD's.
  
• DVR... NO. I don't need to watch more TV. If there's nothing on, then go read a book.
• Blu-ray DVD... NO. Can't tell the diff.
• Ebooks... Not yet. Once the technology gets better, then I'll partake.
  

And so on...
I guess the point is... this is becoming more and more a conscious decision for me. Where to jump in the tech pond and where not to.

Ty called me a Luddite this morning, in so many words. I was mocking his tech-boast of downloading this or that onto his PSP. He's getting good too because he mentioned the odd contrast of me being a computer science guy and a Luddite at the same time.

Obviously, I can only SMILE... so SMILE I do.
What a great kid.
Then, I pummeled him in ping pong for an hour.
he he... yow, bill

PS - Congrats to KGG Football on his 2009 title... www.williamt.com/fantasy/football/season2009/index.htm

En homage... a kelly green bikini with some chick name Kelly, I think:

Labels: fun, technology

Nerd definition, source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nerd

1. a stupid, irritating, ineffectual, or unattractive person.
2. an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit: a computer nerd.

A little more elegant, descriptive definition...

QOTD

"... smart at school and dumb on the bus"
- description of a nerd in "The Third Option" by Vince Flynn

Nice.

Speaking of nerds... here's a fun article describing a supercomputer coming in the not-so-distant future:


QOTD2

"...the next milestone now getting attention from planners is something that can reach an exaflop, or a million trillion calculations per second, (one quintillion)"
- 2018 goal, source

Exaflop. Quintillion. Excellent.
dumb on the bus... yow, bill

Labels: fun, myphoto, qotd, technology

QOTD

"Hi Da.
[pause]
This is Ty.
[pause]
Call me back. I need to talk to you about this pumpkin situation."
- Ty voicemail, to protest that we weren't going to carve pumpkins here at the Castle... hey, he already did them with his mother. Ty wins and I'm headed to pick him up right now.

1. Peggy Noonan's Home Run

Must admit... not a big Peggy Noonan fan over here.
But what a home run this article is in today's WSJ:


It's a two-pronged argument:

1. We see so much illogical, irrational behavior these days. You know my current top 2: global warming nonsense and socialized medicine. Both of these are massive land grabs by the feds for no apparent sensible reason.
   
2. But people aren't worried or serious about this stuff because America is the golden goose. You don't have to be serious because shit has always worked out in the past.
   

I don't know the ending. Who does?
But I'm investing, nimbly... to accommodate this, the era of shenanigans.

2. Net Neutrality
Here's a good article supporting net neutrality. It's written by the guys who run Mozilla, creators of the Firefox browser. Net Neutrality: Spur to Entrepreneurship

The Firefox boys are convincing. The principle behind their argument is solid and QOTD2

QOTD2

"The principle that any "bit" of information is treated the same as any other bit is a defining characteristic of the Internet; it is a central aspect of the design that has lead to the unprecedented impact of the Internet on our lives."
- Mozilla guys, source

Happy Halloween!
That's not me to the right, but it is my cool Halloween attire for the day... courtesy www.threadless.com.

Excellent!
peace... yow, bill

QOTD3

"People are work, brother. A lot of work. Too much work."
- Al Pacino in "Sea of Love"

Movie: "Sea of Love"
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of five)... very good

Pretty basic. 3 bill-stars for the movie + 1 for Ellen Barkin. Mercy!
Ellen Barkin is 55 now, and I can't find a decent picture of her not all plastic-surguried up. Dop.

Labels: 4stars, movies, qotd, technology

So, I don't get:

• We have 3 bones in the inner ear. So, we must have had 2 bones in our ear before that, right? What the heck did that look like?
• As we evolved to 3 ear bones, how do you not wreck the ear? What possible advantage is a 3rd bone until it's totally working?

I'll admit I'm a rummy, but I'm not alone.

QOTD

"... it has been a mystery how this delicate system [the ear] evolved from the cruder listening organs of our reptilian ancestors"
www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fossil-reveals-ear-evolution-in-action

You can't say "intelligent design" these days because that's a loaded (re. politically incorrect) term. My understanding of evolution (admittedly limited) is that it is based on 1) random mutations or changes, and 2) pretty much a greedy optimization algorithm, in that only changes that improve the competitive nature of the organism are accepted, or survive. It's a head-scratcher to me.

I also don't understand (Ty too) why we don't have pads on our feet, but that sounds too stupid, so I'm not going to mention it.

2. The Earthquake
Tomorrow is the 20th Anniversary of the SFO (Loma Prieta) earthquake, Oct 17, 1989.
Williamt was there. Here's a tasty map. The red star is the center of the quake. I was about 10 miles west of that San Jose dot. Holly was closer to the center, south of the San Jose dot.


I have pretty vivid memories:

1. I was at some convention in a large room, and I remember seeing the large lights above us doing some serious, serious swaying. I just looked up and figgered, "I hope those don't fall down, eh." Unsurprisingly, it seemed to last a lot longer than it did.
   
2. Everything shut down... no power. All the highways clogged up... because everyone left work at the exact same time. My car (1970 Pontiac Firebird) ran out of gas sitting in traffic. So, I just walked to work which was a few miles away. I wasn't carrying any money. Dop. I always a hundo hidden away in my wallet since then.
   
3. I couldn't reach Holly at daycare, either physically or by phone. So, yeah that was very tough. Fortunately, girlfriend Janny scooped Holly up all on her own. I found this out some number of hours after the earthquake... and I owe Janny to this day for that one!
   

I have some great photos of our apartment getting pretty trashed too... but they're not scanned in yet. Stay tuned. Or not.
thanks janny... yow, bill

PS - Holly and I moved to (beautiful, scenic) Naperville Illinois in August 1990. About two weeks in, one of the strongest/deadliest tornadoes ever hit neighboring Plainfield: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Plainfield_tornado. I would claim being a disaster jinx, but since the tornado, I've been pretty much disaster-free. So, meh.

Labels: fun, qotd, technology

S&P 500 at 1065. Yow!
A little investment blather as the market makes even higher highs for the year.

See the chart below... the spread between junk bonds and treasuries is at the same level as before the market crash of Sep/Oct last year. This means people aren't afraid of the planet going out of business any more. This is good.


Some of the financial blogs I troll have a decidedly bearish tilt. Cough. Here's a funny exchange I grabbed where a chap named "Sol" seems to lost a chunk of change shorting this bull market. Funny.

A little tech aside... the hottest book this year is "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown. I can't for the life of me figure out why he didn't just call his new book "The DaVinci Code 2" or something equally obvious. Anyway, the interesting techie thing is that, on Amazon, the Kindle version is outselling the hardcopy version (source). Another gray hair just popped out of my skull. He he.

QOTD

"Stealth paneling is incredibly difficult to find"
- Captain Freedom shopping at Home Depot, remodeling his secret HQ

Go market, go!
peace... yow, bill

Labels: investing, qotd, technology

I'm dehydrated. I'm disoriented. I've fallen and I can't get up.



I always panic when gmail is down for whatever reason (source).

Anyway, back to normal blogging here... according to Forbes mag (source)...

• 3.8 million people in the US weigh more than 300 pounds
• The average adult female in the US weighs 163 pounds, a new record

I check in at 170 these days. I'm not a big BMI guy, but I'm at 27%-ile (source) which is OK.
So, if I lose 7 pounds, I'll weigh as much as the average chick. He he.

I can't imagine being 3 clicks. It's like willfully disabling yourself or something. Jeez, life is hard enough on its own without working against yourself. And I know some people are into the whole "food addiction" thing, ala Oprah. All I can tell you is people never used to be addicted to food. It's one of those weird "things that have changed" in the last 47 years. I actually prefer Ray Kurzweil's notion that we are coping (not too well) with ultra-cheap food for the first time in our existence as a species. This will require a new, learned level of self-control. Anyway.

QOTD

"Everything in moderation"
- Aristotle, well sort of... I'm paraphrasing here

I totally buy into that. Thanks, Ari. I heart the moderation thing because you gotta add a dash of subtlety to "get" it. It's powerful if you do. But I gotta go chase 40-somethings right now, so later.

And I say huzzah to the monokini. Huzzah!
huzzah indeed... yow, bill

Labels: healthcare, qotd, technology

QOTD

"I know it sounds funny, but I just can't stand the pain..."
- Commodores "Easy"... OK, Lionel Richie, jeez whatever

Check out nerd-vana and true random numbers generated from atmospheric noise at www.random.org

"It seems to me girl, ya know I've done all I can..."
easy... yow, bill

Labels: qotd, technology

Hey,

I found this at Slope of Hope. Here's an AT&T "You Will" ad from 16 years ago:

Why does a crappy video like that sum things up so powerfully?
What will the world look like in 16 years? 2025?
Dang.
Shit, what will I look like in 16 years.
Next!

Also, if you're out there... Open Office for the Mac is totally for real. Their flavor of Excel even has D* database functions. That makes me smile.

So does the idea of dinner with Holly tomorrow night.
But don't tell her.

QOTD

"Because I wonder where you are
And I wonder what you do
Are you somewhere feeling lonely?
Or is someone loving you?"
- L Richie, "Hello"

I listened to this crap half the day, my new "Best of Lionel Richie" birthday 47 CD, and even posted about it on Facebook... and there it was (all kismet and synchronicity like) on the mu-zak at the Jew-el tonight as I selected my Jose Ole taquitos from the freezer section.
yum... yow, bill

PS - BTW, they were out of the steak taquitos, so I had to get chicken. Sigh.



PPS - Not that I'm bad-mouthing the chicken, or Mr. Ole, mind you. Just had my heart set, ya know.

Labels: fun, qotd, technology

I'm on hold with Dell.
This week just seems like a confluence of events... a coming together of people, places, things.
A stream of synchronicity:

• Dell, Comcast and little old me can't get my new Dell connected to the internet.
• So, back it goes.
• I bought an Imac last night.
• Dell support (and Comcast as well, for that matter) have been unfailingly polite. "My pleasure to be knowing you" is Indian for "Nice to meet you"... it's growing on me.
• One tech support guy said that it is unrealistic for me to think that Vista will connect to the internet at the speed of my 4 yo XP machine because it has "so much better security".
• Another tech support guy said that Dell can't worry about their machine connecting to someone's cable modem; that's the cable company's problem. That sounds reasonable on the face of it, but my old XP machine (that I'm using right now) connects to the same cable modem like a charm... and has for 4+ years.
  
• Dell is charging me 15% for returning their boat anchor.
  
• I have been asked for my Dell order number, name, and the nature of my problem 4 times in the 5 minutes or so since I started this post.
• I haven't lost my cool or blown my top in 4 days now.
• Oh, I just had my first rude service guy. Still didn't lose it though. He he. I have been transferred at least a dozen times.
• He he. Done. They are emailing me shipping labels to return my boat anchor.
  

The Apple machine I bought costs a lot more.
I'll bet I run into stuff that I can't do because it deviates from the Apple norm, but that's OK.
It's going to be a heck of a time breaking all my PC habits.

In the end I'm smiling.
It's another 40-something williamt victory... bitter, sweet, hard fought, a change and teaching this old dog, a confluence of so many factors, and goooooooood.
smile... yow, bill

Labels: fun, technology

QOTD

“A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human.”
- A Turing from www.thinkexist.com/quotes/alan_turing

Follow the links, if you like.
What's cooler than the Turing Test?
The kitty is a (paltry) $100K in the so-cool Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence.
They announced the results of this year's competition: 2008 Loebner Prize Competition Results
The winner was a program called Elbot. If you go there, you can talk to the winner, Elbot.

The good news: According to ACM, 25% of the judges at Loebner thought that Elbot was human. That's the highest rating ever.

The bad news: If you go talk to Elbot, it still seems really, um, kinda dumb. In fact, here's the transcript from Elbot's (winning) showing at Loebner: www.loebner.net/Prizef/2008_Contest/Elbot.pdf... which again doesn't seem "all that."

The really good news: It'll happen. Chop chop. What... 10 years?
ACM also had an article about robots taking over service industry jobs.
This stuff is too cool, and then someone will do it, and it'll be poo-poo'd... like computer chess programs.
And then onto the next coolest thing ever.

QOTD2 (en homage to Holly)

“Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity.”
- A Turing

smath... yow, bill

Labels: qotd, technology

QOTD

"That's a long ass project."
- Chris the Commish, on my copying all my photo albums

I'm trying to figure out the best way to scan in a zillion old photo albums.

Here's my first test:

• I have approx. 400 prints from 3 separate albums
  
• I want 600 dpi scans... to get high reprint quality
  
• I want the digital files of the scans... on DVD or CD
  
• I want reprints made... for Felecia

I called 5 places today (Oct 15, 2008).

ScanCafe

Go:

1. Scan cost - 400 x $.27 per print = $108.
2. Reprints - They don't do reprints. Dop!
3. Wait - 6-8 weeks to process, then 10-15 business days after I select what I want from the website. Jeez!
4. Order - They scan in your order and maintain your packaging. They create an online folder for each package of prints you send.
5. Where - The scanning is done in Bangalore.
   

Subtotal = dop... they don't do reprints!
I think these guys are competing mainly on price, not service of quality.
The phone guy was in outer Mongolia on a bad internet phone. 6-8 weeks to process... forget it!

BritePix

Go:

1. Scan cost - 400 x $.39 = $160
   
2. Reprints - 400 x $.22 = $88
   
3. Wait - 10-12 business days
   
4. Order - They scan as organize and create a digital folder for each package.
5. Where - The scanning is done in Miami or Costa Rica or something.

Subtotal = $160 + $88 = $248
Another bad Internet phone here.
The Miami/Costa Rica thing is a little suspect.

DigMyPics.com

Go:

1. Scan cost - 400 x $.45 = $180
   
2. Reprints - 400 x $.11 = $44 (Kodak)
   
3. Wait - 4-7 business days
   
4. Order - They create digital folders for each group.
   
5. Where - The scanning is done in Mesa, AZ.

Subtotal = $180 + $44 = $224.
The girl answering the phone was good, though she tried selling me that 300 DPI was just fine for reprints. Whatever.

ScanMyPhotos

It looks like they only do 300 dpi... prognosis negative!

Legacy

Go:

1. Scan cost - 400 x $.49 = $200
   
2. Reprints - 400 x $.19 = $80 (Qualex/Kodak reprints)
   
3. Wait - 3-4 weeks to online gallery
   
4. Order - Yes. I can also tell them what to name the folders and files.
   
5. Where - The scanning is done right there in Grove City, OH.

Subtotal = $200 + $80 = $280
It was just a guy on the phone, sounded like the clerk at the photo store. I think this is "good", but who knows.
The reprints are made through Kodak ("Qualex"?). You select reprints from their online gallery and Kodak has then made locally and sends them to you. I guess that's OK.

Conclusion
OK, I originally was keeping track of shipping, but they all seemed pretty much the same.
In fact, the cost difference on any of these guys isn't dramatic, except ScanCafe, and I didn't get a warm and fuzzy from them over the phone.

So, ranking on "feel" and options:

5. ScanMyPhotos - only 300 dpi
4. ScanCafe - no reprints, long wait
3. BritePix - bad vibe, bad internet phone call
2. Legacy - I like the local place, it costs a little more
1. DigMyPics

I think I'll try DigMyPics. The only thing I'm not crazy about is the Kodak printing, but Legacy does that too. They had the best customer service, and they (supposedly) have 3 steps (as detailed on their website) where they do a quality check: scanning, color correction, and final review. I hope they really have some manual intervention because scanning is a dang squirrelly process.

Stay tuned!
luck to me... yow, bill

PS - I have already figured out one trick. I wasn numbering photos to remember their proder in my albums. That sucked. So, now I am going to take index photos of each page, so that I can recreate the original album order. This is much faster... so far!
PPS - See!

Labels: qotd, technology

QOTD

"I guarantee you that Moore's Law will not end on my watch. Nobody in tech wants to be the guy who goes down in history for killing Moore's Law -- and it sure won't be me."
- Intel CEO Paul S. Otellini from "Intel Reboots for the 21st Century"

Here's Moore's Law if you don't know what it is: Wikipedia on Moore's Law.


Computer power/capacity keeps doubling every 18-24 months, and computers will be about 1000x more powerful in 20 years than they are today.

These numbers make the future a little clearer... technology will continue to dominate and transform society. As long as Moore's Law continues, the (crazy) technology predictions like those of Ray Kurzweil are still on the table.
singularity is nearer... yow, bill

Labels: qotd, technology

This is too funny. From tech.yahoo.com/blog/hughes/11844, the top 10 passwords are:

1. password
2. 123456
3. qwerty
4. abc123
5. letmein
6. monkey
7. myspace 1
8. password 1
9. blink182
10. (your first name)

This is actually a book review: online.wsj.com/article/SB121841410386328473.html
The book is called "Scared Senseless". Read the last couple paragraphs about second-hand smoke. I gotta post more more on this because I'll bet you could virtually prove the second-hand smoke thing is all completely overblown (aka bullshit).

QOTD

"The study found "no evidence of an elevated risk of coronary heart disease or lung cancer" in the nonsmoking spouses of smokers."
- Geoffrey C. Kabatfrom his book "Scared Senseless"

Those American Spirits (to the right) are tasty.

Just let people decide what they want to do. It's called freedom.
Worst case, you regulate... but don't ban shit.
Why are we surrounded by people seemingly aching to their core to reproduce prohibition?
puff puff give... yow, bill

Labels: qotd, smoking, technology

Yo yo yo,

Bio-tech startup Pacific Biosciences of California got $100M in financing... so says The Journal:


So what?
Well, the company claims that by 2010, it will have a process that sequences your DNA in 15 minutes. They don't mention the cost. You go to the doctor, get your DNA sequenced, and then analyzed for the kitchen sink. For what diseases are you pre-disposed? What medications are best for your biology? Eventually.

And please please please, know that this is the tip of the iceberg. If we're sequencing DNA in 2010, then what will we be doing in 2020? Think about it.

Must of this is foretold by my main man Ray Kurzweil. His book "The Singularity is Near" is 5 bill-star reading. Oh, here you go...

Book: "The Singularity is Near"
Review: 5 bill-stars
His web site: www.singularity.com ... click on "Resources" for some great nerd news.

This is the best and most fun tech books about the future that I have read. Period.

QOTD (paragraph breaks and emphasis are mine)

"None of the global warming discussions mention the word “nanotechnology.” Yet nanotechnology will eliminate the need for fossil fuels within 20 years. If we captured 1% of 1% of the sunlight (1 part in 10,000) we could meet 100% of our energy needs without ANY fossil fuels.

We can’t do that today because the solar panels are too heavy, expensive, and inefficient. But there are new nanoengineered designs that are much more effective. Within five to six years, this technology will make a significant contribution. Within 20 years, it can provide all of our energy needs. The discussions talk about current trends continuing for the next century as if nothing is going to change.

I think global warming is real but it has been modest thus far - 1 degree f. in 100 years. It would be concern if that continued or accelerated for a long period of time, but that’s not going to happen. And it’s not just environmental concern that will drive this, the $2 trillion we spend on energy is providing plenty of economic incentive. I don’t see any disasters occurring in the next 10 years from this. However, I AM concerned about other environment issues.

There are other reasons to want to move quickly away from fossil fuels including environmental pollution at every step and the geopolitical instability it causes."
- Ray Kurzweil, June 2006

Dang, that's money.
nano this... yow, bill

Labels: 5stars, books, globalwarming, technology